Luxembourg - Nov 2009

We visited a friend of Magda's who lives in Luxembourg and whose husband works for the EU. It was a most "unfriendly" day. Most of the day was spent in conversation. But we decided to take a quick tour of the EU area.

When I worked at FIZ-Karlsuhe in 1991, one of my first trips was to Luxembourg. I remember the fortifications of the city above the deep valleys. I also remember a single building devoted to European government (of course this was pre-EU).

So I was more that surprised to see the city that has been built, all since 1995. Buildings were there for parliament, courts, the symphony, offices, banks and everything required to support the people working there.

The bottom part of one of the buildings contains a mall, that includes an amazing grocery store called Auchan. This store provides for people from all over Europe that are working at the EU, and are generally well paid and appreciate their food. Here are some of my observations:

• a tenth of the store was devoted to drinks, more than half of that was wines from all over the world. A large part of this was French. There was also a large selections of wines from Luxembourg (the Moselle extends into Luxembourg). The USA was represented by two levels of wines from Gallo.
• Beers from all over Europe were there, Germany, Belgium, France, and Luxembourg. The USA was represented by Samuel Adams Boston Lager and Miller.
• 30-40 meter long and 1 meter deep showcase of cheeses
• 30-40 meter long and 1 meter deep showcase for salamis, wursts and pâtés
• Huge counter of fresh fish, plus a counter of salted cod (which, I'm told is popular with the Portugese contingent to the EU).
• Frozen foods to satisfy any special needs of representatives from any European country.
• Sometime, watching the people shopping was as interesting as the selection offered by the store. I mean there are people from all over the world shopping there.